True Blue ✷ Leo Valdez.

11 : Shopping Trip.

    BLAIRE HADN'T BEEN TO a mortal shopping mall since she was 13. She'd accompanied Olivia's family one summer afternoon and indulged in the vibrantly colored wonders of the outlet stores. It had been three whole years since she'd stepped foot in the mall, but she was almost positive that it didn't advertise potions, weapons and magical appliances.

   The four Half-bloods stopped infront of a set of polished steel elavator doors, each one engraved with a cursive letter M. Next to the elevator was a directory, like for a department store.

   "M for Macy's?" Piper guessed. "I think they have one in downtown Chicago."

"Or Monocle Motors still?" Leo said. "Guys, read the directory. It's messed up."

  That's where the odd advertising came in

  Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer 
Level.
Furnishings and Café M: 1
Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2
Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3 Cosmetics,
Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4

"Kennels for what?" Piper said. "And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?"

  "What kind of department store sells magical appliances?" Blaire added.

"Or poisons," Leo said. "Man, what does 'sundries' even mean? Is that like underwear?"

Blaire gave him an odd look for that.

Jason took a deep breath. "When in doubt, start at the top."

So they did, despite Blaire's gut instinct telling her she should abandon the odd place in whole. She didn't understand why the other's deemed it necessary to explore the store, but she followed them nontheless.

They loaded into the elavator which brought them all the way up to the fourth floor. The second they stepped from the elavator, the violent, nearly overbearing scent of extravagant perfume attacked their nostrils.

Jason held his sword at the ready. But lowered it with a gasp "Guys. You've got to see this."

Piper joined him and caught her breath. "This is not Macy's."

She was most definitely correct. Blaire remembered the interior of Macy's, it was a beige nightmare, brimming with designer bags and such. It was not— well it was not this place.

The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun. The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground floor. Gold railings glittered so brightly, they were hard to look at.

"Woah," Blaire breathed unconsciously, her gaze raking over the multicolored ceiling, drinking in the vibrant details.

"Woah is right," Leo agreed, halting beside her.

Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, there didn't seem to be any other windows or doors, or ways to escape if need be, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels. The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre. There was too much to take it at once, but Blaire saw normal stuff like shirt racks and shoe trees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and fur coats that seemed to be moving.